Would you like to be more productive? The most successful people in the world have the same amount of time in a day as you do. You’re about to discover a simple way to be more productive. Plus, this technique can relieve stress, reduce headaches, and help you achieve your goals faster.
What is this magic productivity pill? Put this simple yet extremely powerful tip into practice:
Write everything down. Don’t try to remember it.
Said another way…
“A short pen is better than a long memory.” — Confucius (551 BC – 479 BC)
Your Brain At Work
Have you ever wondered why great ideas come to you at the most random times?
When you write down thoughts (as opposed to leaving them active in your short-term memory) it leaves plenty of room for new ideas.
Your Brain Is the Stage, Your Thoughts Actors
The analogy Your Brain At Work uses is a small theater stage where thoughts are actors. The more actors on the small stage there are, the more chaos ensues. If there are only a few actors on stage, while the rest are backstage, all is good.
Instead of clogging your “stage” with tons of thoughts at the same time, continually keep sending them backstage (write them down) and keep your stage clear.
As soon as you start implementing this concept, you will feel mentally free and liberated. It’s amazing. Plus, you allow your subconscious time to think through all the thoughts that are backstage and send back to center stage new, brilliant ideas.
Have you ever wondered why great ideas come to you at the most random times? It’s usually because those are the times that you finally cleared off your stage and made room for new ideas. And new ideas are usually the seeds of productivity. Productive people get more done with better, more creative ideas as opposed to working harder.
For Real Estate Investors…
Here is how this concept could be applied to real estate investors in the real world:
- When you see a “For Sale by Owner” sign, take a picture of the property and write down the phone number and other pertinent details.
- When you get a business call on your cell phone, jot down the important details of the conversation.
- When you spot a cool looking sign that could be adapted to your marketing efforts, take a picture of it.
- At your real estate club meeting, make notes on what you learn.
- When you get an email from your favorite guru with a neat angle on the business, capture it.
- When you make a mistake in your investing experiences, rather than letting it disappear into the past, write it down as a valuable learning lesson.
- If you’re marketing for motivated sellers, you should continually run experiments to improve your results. Write down the results of everything you do and when it was done.
- If you stumble upon a fantastic blog post (like this one), add it to your collection of great ideas.
- If you have an inspiration at a random point in the day, jot it down
So, Where Do I Keep All This Stuff?
How do you capture and keep all this information quickly and easily?
Evernote. It’s free and absolutely incredible.
You can store text notes, pictures, emails, webpages, voice memos, and much more. It syncs with all your devices. In fact, I wrote this entire article on my iPhone using Evernote. It’s installed on your local device, so it is very fast. And it automatically syncs in the cloud, so you don’t lose anything. You can quickly search through your Evernotes, so you can sort through your collection of ideas efficiently. You can also tag notes for fast reference.
Some swear by WorkFlowy over Evernote. WorkFlowy allows you to jot down your thoughts, too. It is simpler than Evernote because it is just one big canvas that everything gets added to. I don’t use it because it doesn’t handle emails, webpages, voice memos or pictures, and it requires internet access.
Some of my best ideas come when I don’t have internet access, such as on an airplane. Evernote is there for me when WorkFlowy isn’t.
Others simply use a physical piece of paper and a pen. If your smartphone and laptop are drained of power, it’s your only option! But usually our smartphones are at our side at all times whereas a legal pad and pen may not.
Become a Collector
The most successful people in any endeavor are collectors. Collectors of ideas, techniques, lessons, facts, tips, and experiences. If you aren’t already, become a real estate investing collector. Over time, you’ll be shocked at your progress. So few people do it that when you begin to collect ideas in an organized fashion, you will be in a league all of your own.
The simple way to be more productive is to write everything down. Don’t try to remember it.